Original Schedule Files Now Available at Retrosheet!

[fearofmimes]

I wrote a script yesterday that can take some of Paul's original text schedules and convert them to a format that can be imported into OOTP. I have attached a schedule that I converted for the 1903 season. I'm going to look at the schedules on retrosheet and perhaps start using those.

A couple notes...

First, the Schedule Importer for OOTP6 does not appear to be very flexible. It appears to be tightly coupled with the team numbers that are used internally. I worked around this in the past for another schedule importer that I wrote by extracting the team numbers from the league.dat file. Actually, there are fewer moving parts in my custom schedule importer than what is required for using the built-in OOTP schedule importer. In order to discover the format for import files, I exported a generated schedule and then worked my way back with my script.

It would be nice if the schedule importer could work with an alternate key; ideally, this would be the team abbreviation. Then schedule files could be posted in a more reusable format with the only requirement being that the leagues use the same abbreviations. Right now, it appears that we need to use team numbers, which greatly limits the reusability of generated schedules. I have worked around this with my script by supporting a translation file for my script with the added benefit that it allows for customization of game times.

I am also troubled by the continuing apparent lack of support for doubleheaders in OOTP6. One of the features of most major league schedules until very recently was the presence of doubleheaders. Until OOTP better supports doubleheaders, there will be limited value in providing support for use of historical schedules. In the script that I wrote, I can identify doubleheaders and I'm working on various ways to try to incorporate them into the import file so that they can be handled in the best manner possible by OOTP. Right now, the attached schedule has doublheader games separated by 4 hours and I am simming some seasons to see if this helps at all (initial impression is that OOTP still tries to start the same pitchers on both ends in some cases).

[Malleus Dei]

OOTP and Retrosheet really need to coordinate their work better.

[gmo]

Originally posted by fearofmimes
I wrote a script yesterday that can take some of Paul's original text schedules and convert them to a format that can be imported into OOTP.

I started working on the same thing, turning the Retrosheet schedules directly into OOTP-acceptable CSV format. My goal was just to produce those files for historical sake and not make any sort of flexible importer or something that can evolve season to season. I'd so far done what Retrosheet has for 1962 forward, though that is only 7 seasons.

I was setting all the game times for either 1 (day) or 7 (night) local time. As for doubleheaders, I was just setting the games to 1 & 7 local time. Perhaps I'm imagining it, but I thought I saw something saying better doubleheader support would be attempted. I suppose more likely I'm just remembering somebody hoping for it. Haven't try playing out any of the games to see how the AI is handling twin-bills though myself.

One issue I seemed to run into was the All-Star game always being hosted by the NL. And what is the story on the 2 All-Star Game seasons? I can get 2 "AL vs NL" games listed, but only one shows on the schedule edit screen at the bottom. Again, haven't done any simming, but I'd figure it either skips the other game or crashes the game.

[gmo]

Oh yeah, if anyone is interested here's the 1973 schedule in a zip file.

[BasicGuy]

I really hope this gets sqaured away and Markus makes the OOTP6 importer compatible with the Retrosheet format schedule files as This would be a great addition the game.

[Malleus Dei]

Originally posted by BasicGuy
I really hope this gets sqaured away and Markus makes the OOTP6 importer compatible with the Retrosheet format schedule files as This would be a great addition the game.

Amen.

[Eugene Church]

I played several seasons in OOTP5 using doubleheaders and it really adds to the game. I played one day of doubleheaders in OOTP6 and had no problems. You really have to pay attention to your pitching rotations and sometimes have to go to the bullpen for a starter. This also allows for more realistic use of your staff...starters can relieve...and relievers can start. I put one starter in setup position two and one starter in the closer position. If a starter is used in short relief, I require a day of rest before they can start. If he pitches a lot, then require more days rest.

I don't schedule an allstar game because it has been reported to be a problem. I don't think it worth the risk of problems.

All teams are controlled by me.

All my pitchers are listed as starters and have A duration.

I check starting pitchers for each game to make sure they have 3 days rest, then sim that game. On the schedule page, it will show the same pitchers for both games, but after you play the first game, it will select new starters...but will occasionally start a pitcher in both games. That's why I check the starting pitchers prior to simming. If no starter has 3 days rest, I go to the bullpen. If no reliever is rested, then I use a starter with 2 days rest. I only use 9 man staffs...prefer '50s baseball. By choosing all the starters, I can choose a reliever anytime I want. This adds to the realism. OOTPB only uses a starter as a starter and a reliever as a reliever...not very realistic. I don't use the spot starter position, which is the only way OOTPB can work a reliever as a starter.

Don't know what would happen if you simmed a week or more at a time.

Simming each game has worked extremely well.

All stats are accumulated from both games except in a few cases.

There are a few minor errors...on a players HTML report...the stats are correct for both games of the doubleheader...except the score of the first game is also listed for the score of the second game.
And the score of the second game is not listed on the teams schedule. Neither are big deals to me.

[jdew]

Originally posted by Gastric ReFlux
Has anyone tried playing doubleheaders yet in 6? I'm aware this is a tangent away from the original thread intent, but to be able to play doubleheaders and have the stats count would be vital for this to work as well.

I converted the Retrosheet 1920 schedule and imported it to my 1920 league. All day starts are at 1 with second games starting at 7.

On the day of the doubleheader, before the first game was played, the schedule screen showed the same starting pitchers for both games. Once the first game was finished, the starting pitchers for the second immediately changed.

As for the position players, the regular starters played in both as none were "tired".

The stats recorded properly to the players' records.

So.... looks like doubles work reasonably provided the first game finishes before the second starts.

Since the game engine doesn't know a doubleheader from a single game, it will not rest a position player unless the player becomes "tired" after the first game.

In other words, the game engine handles 2 games in 1 day the same as it handles 2 games in 2 days.

So to schedule doubleheaders make certain the first game ends before the second begins.

[gmo]

Originally posted by jdew
So to schedule doubleheaders make certain the first game ends before the second begins.

This very much rings a bell as being the key to making sure it works, but I'm too lazy to try to look up the earlier thread I think I'm remembering where that was said. Thanks for posting your game results. I assume you were playing the games out, or at least simming them individually. Can you plow through a doubleheader day simming the entire day?

I converted the Retrosheet 1920 schedule and imported it to my 1920 league.

Granted being able to directly import (and for that matter export) Retrosheet format schedule files would be great. But if people are already converting the Retrosheet MLB schedules into the format OOTP accepts right now, how much effort do you think it would be worth putting into upgrading the import/export function?

[Gastric ReFlux]

Hmm, I just tried setting up a league and then scheduling a doubleheader.

Both teams had an off day prior to the doubleheader date.

Game 1 started at 2:05, Game 2 start time at 7:05


In both games, St Louis started Jeffrey Odum, although plenty of other starters were rested.

Seattle started two different pitchers.

Stats look okay and updated.

[jdew]

Since it takes me about 10 minutes to convert a Retrosheet schedule to OOTP format using Excel, its probably not worth changing the import/export schedule feature.

Interesting doubleheader fact - Joe McGinnity pitched complete game victories in both games of a doubleheader 3 times in August, 1903....

[jdew]

Originally posted by gmo
Can you plow through a doubleheader day simming the entire day?

Same results as simming the games individually.... two games, different starting pitchers.

[jdew]

Originally posted by gmo
One issue I seemed to run into was the All-Star game always being hosted by the NL. And what is the story on the 2 All-Star Game seasons? I can get 2 "AL vs NL" games listed, but only one shows on the schedule edit screen at the bottom. Again, haven't done any simming, but I'd figure it either skips the other game or crashes the game.

I haven't simmed it, but from what I've seen so far, I'm guessing that

- the schedule has the teams in order Home-Visitor so to have AL host a game, the AL Allstar team is in the Visitor slot. But its only specifiable in an imported schedule; the generator does something random when you type in the allstar date.

- only one allstar date will show on the Edit Schedule screen (only room for one date), but the game engine will play 2 allstar games (if the second is scheduled). The player records will indicate two allstar games... the notation used such as BOS,AL will be BOS,AL,AL if the guys in both allstar games. And you'll see "Was selected to the <year> Allstar game..." twice in the player's history.

Seems to me that OOTP only determines an allstar game from a regular season game because the teams are AL Allstars and NL Allstars. That appears to trigger the whole allstar coding. So theoretically you could have any number of allstar games using an imported schedule.

Again, I haven't simmed, only guessing based on what I've seen the game engine do.

[Le Grande Orange]

It's nice to see some interested parties in here! Now for a few specific comments...

Originally posted by fearofmimes
I wrote a script yesterday that can take some of Paul's original text schedules and convert them to a format that can be imported into OOTP.

I remember you, fearofmimes. I think we had some discussions some time last year about a schedule importer for OOTP5 or something to that effect. Good to see you again!

If you don't mind, may I suggest you keep fine-tuning a script which can convert the format I used in my schedules files? There are a couple of reasons I ask that.

First, I currently have 108 minor league schedule files available (19 American Association, 33 International League, 45 Pacific Coast League, 1 Southern Assocation, 6 Texas League, 2 of the 1894-99 Western League, 1 of the 1900-37 Western League, and the 1900 American League). They're all in the same simple text format I used for the MLB schedule files, so it would be great to be able to use these files as they are. Dave Smith of Retrosheet wrote a utility which converts my files into the Retrosheet format. I have asked if he could send me the utility so I could convert my minor league files, but I haven't heard back from him on that yet. So, being able to convert my files directly into OOTP's format would be very helpful.

Second, for those wanting to do custom created schedules, the OOTP format is very unfriendly. It makes much more sense to use another format to create one's custom schedule, and then type it out into the simple format that I use. It's very quick to work in and is the most compact way of presenting a season's worth of games. Again, being able to convert from this directly into an OOTP-compatible format would be very useful.

Originally posted by fearofmimes
It would be nice if the schedule importer could work with an alternate key; ideally, this would be the team abbreviation. Then schedule files could be posted in a more reusable format with the only requirement being that the leagues use the same abbreviations.

I was thinking the same thing. I was surprised to hear that it only used the team ID numbers. Given that when importing players from the Lahman Database it places the players onto the proper teams by matching the team abbreviations in Lahman to those used in the league file, I would've expected a similar method for schedule importing.

Originally posted by fearofmimes
I have worked around this with my script by supporting a translation file for my script with the added benefit that it allows for customization of game times..

That's excellent, and was one of the reasons I broke down the starting times in my files into four basic categories, rather than the simpler day/night choice.

I don't have much information on starting times, but I can say these have changed over the years, much like many other things in baseball.

In the 1910's to 1930's, day games usually started between 3:00-3:30 p.m. Doubleheaders usually began between 1:30-1:45 p.m. except for morning-afternoon twin bills. Those had the first game starting between 10:15-10:30 a.m. and the second game beginning at 3:00 p.m., and were separate admission affairs. Night games, when they began occurring in the mid-1930's, usually started at 8:30 p.m.

In the 1940's and 1950's, day games usually started around 2:30 p.m. while day doubleheaders had the first game starting between 1:30-2:00 p.m. Twilight games normally started at 5:30 p.m. as did the first game of a twilight-night twin bill. Night games still began for the most part at 8:30 p.m.

In the 1960's and into the 1970's, day games typically started at 2:00 p.m., while the first game of a twin bill started at 1:00 p.m. Night games generally started at 8:00 p.m. while twilight games and the first game of a twi-night doubleheader started at 5:00 p.m. Morning games started at 11:00 a.m.

By the time the 1980's arrive, the start times of games look pretty much like they do today.

It would be great if the start time field in the OOTP format could be changed to a 24-hour clock time instead of a simple single digit. This would allow much more preciseness in setting start times, along with allowing games to start before 12 noon (I presume this isn't possible in the current single digit time field). Another benefit is that it would allow day doubleheaders to actually be played during the day, even after allowing several hours between games. The first game could be set to, say, 10:30 a.m. and the second game for 3:30 p.m., which leaves OOTP some 5 hours between the games. That would hopefully be enough to avoid any conflicts.

Originally posted by fearofmimes
In the script that I wrote, I can identify doubleheaders and I'm working on various ways to try to incorporate them into the import file so that they can be handled in the best manner possible by OOTP.

This is excellent as well. I have only one caveat to offer: watch out for split-team and split-location doubleheaders. They're rare, but they do happen on occasion.

A split-team twin bill is where the home team hosts two different teams on the same day, i.e. Chicago hosts Detroit in the first game and Cleveland in the second. I believe there are only a very few of these scheduled, and only in the 19th century.

A split-location doubleheader is where the same two teams play but switch parks after the first game. For example, in the 1915 FL schedule Brooklyn plays at Newark in the first game while in the second Newark is visiting Brooklyn. This type of twin bill is not common, but it did happen pre-1900 as well as a few times post-1900 in the NL.

Originally posted by gmo
I started working on the same thing, turning the Retrosheet schedules directly into OOTP-acceptable CSV format.

This is excellent too. It is definitely good to have the Retrosheet format covered, since that is the "official" format now. All the MLB regular season original schedules will eventually be on the site once they've all be proofed and verified.

Originally posted by gmo
I'd so far done what Retrosheet has for 1962 forward, though that is only 7 seasons.

I have sent a few more seasons that are ready for posting to Dave Smith, but he hasn't yet converted them to the Retrosheet format and posted them to the site yet.

There are however still a few seasons waiting to be proofed. Specifically, these are: 1880-82, 1884 (UA only), 1886-97, 1900-01, 1969-72, 1975-75, and 1980-82. So, if you have access to such things as the TSN Guides, Reach Guides, or similar publications which printed the original schedules, you too can help out. It's a matter of checking the file against the published schedule and looking for any discrepancies, and making note of any. This proofing is important, as it checks the schedule data against a source different from the one I got the info from (there have been a few seasons where there were some differences in dates between the sources). This information then gets sent to me and I go through it to determine the nature of the discrepancies and how they should be corrected.

If you'd like to help finish off the proofing of the remaining seasons, drop Dave Smith an e-mail and he'll coordinate things.

Of course, I still have a bunch of proofing notes to go over, but it can be a slow process sometimes sorting out why there are discrepancies...

Originally posted by Malleus Dei
OOTP and Retrosheet really need to coordinate their work better.

Perhaps. Or perhaps it's more of a case where OOTP just needs to coordinate its work with the resident schedule guru.

[Tresclub]

Originally posted by jdew
I converted the Retrosheet 1920 schedule...

How did you do this?

... and imported it to my 1920 league.

how did you do this?

[fearofmimes]

I've been working through the doubleheader issue and I think I have a pretty good explanation of the problem as well as a reasonable proposal for a solution (Heads Up OOTP Developments!). Please note that in each of the scenarios being tested, I was simming an entire day rather than individual games. In past versions (haven't confirmed for OOTP6 yet), if you played a game and simmed the games in the background, the statistics from only one of the games in the doubleheader would be counted.

The one thing that can be said about doubleheaders in OOTP is that it has been difficult to infer the logic being used by the game when it encounters a matchup occurring twice on the same day. If this logic was more clear, it might be easier to come up with a way to massage the schedule to make the game behave in a somewhat more predictable manner.

What I have observed simming numerous situations with doubleheaders is that game time does not appear to make any difference in terms of the computer manager selecting pitchers. Whether games are scheduled to start at the same time or are staggered does not appear to influence the chances for what would appear to be reasonable selection of starting pitchers.

Scenario 1:

4/20/1903: Philadelphia (N) at Boston (N), both games scheduled for 3:05 ET. #1 starter is next scheduled starter for Boston with #3 day-to-day and #4 fatigued. #1 starter is next scheduled starter for Philadelphia with #4 fatigued and spot starter fatigued.

Same starters scheduled for each team in both games.

Game 1 had #1 starter for both teams (as expected). Game 2 had #2 starter for both teams (reasonable).

4/20/1903: Philadelphia (A) at Boston (A), first game scheduled for 1:05 ET and second game scheduled for 3:05 ET. This is the first game of the season for both teams.

Game 1 had #1 starter for both teams (as expected). Game 2 had #2 starter for both teams (reasonble).

Scenario 2:

5/30/1903: Philadelphia (N) at Brooklyn, first game scheduled for 1:05 ET and second game scheduled for 3:05 ET. Philadelphia (N) has #1 starter scheduled and both #1 and #2 are rested. Brooklyn has #1 starter scheduled and rested while #2 starter is fatigued, but spot starter is rested.

Prediction: Brooklyn #1 starter will pitch both games.
Result: Brooklyn #1 starter pitched both games while Philadelphia (N) used #1 starter in game 1 and #2 starter in game 2.

5/30/1903: Boston (N) at New York (N), first game scheduled for 1:05 ET and second game scheduled for 3:05 ET. Boston (N) has #2 starter scheduled and rested while #3 starter is fatigued, but spot starter is rested. New York (N) has #1 starter scheduled and rested while #2 starter is fatigued, but #4 starter is rested.

Prediction: Boston (N) #2 starter and New York (N) #1 starter will pitch both games.
Result: Boston (N) #2 starter and New York (N) #1 starter pitched in both games.

5/30/1903: Cincinnati at Pittsburgh, first game scheduled for 1:05 ET and second game scheduled for 3:05 ET. Cincinnati has #1 starter scheduled and both #1 and #2 are rested. Pittsburgh has #2 starter scheduled and both #2 and #3 are rested.

Result: Cincinnati used #1 starter in game 1 and #2 starter in game 2. Pittsburgh used #2 starter in game 1 and #3 starter in game 2.

5/30/1903: Washington at Boston (A), first game scheduled for 1:05 ET and second game scheduled for 3:05 ET. Washington has #3 starter scheduled and both #3 and #4 are rested. Boston (A) has #3 starter scheduled and both #3 and #4 are rested.

Result: Washington used #3 starter in game 1 and #4 starter in game 2. Boston (A) used #3 starter in game 1 and #4 starter in game 2.

5/30/1903: New York (A) at Philadelphia (A), first game scheduled for 1:05 ET and second game scheduled for 3:05 ET. New York (A) has #3 starter scheduled and both #3 and #4 are rested. Philadelphia (A) has #2 starter scheduled and rested while #3 starter is fatigued, but #4 starter is rested.

Prediction: Philadelphia (A) #2 starter will pitch both games.
Result: Philadelphia (A) #2 starter pitched in both games. New York (A) used starter #3 in game 1 and #4 starter in game 2.

5/30/1903: Chicago (A) at Cleveland, first game scheduled for 1:05 ET and second game scheduled for 3:05 ET. Chicago (A) has #2 starter scheduled and rested while #3 starter is fatigued, but #4 starter is rested. Cleveland has #1 starter scheduled and both #1 and #2 are rested.

Prediction: Chicago (A) #2 starter will pitch both games.
Result: Chicago (A) #2 pitched in both games. Cleveland used starter #1 in game 1 and starter #2 in game 2.

5/30/1903: Detroit at St. Louis (A), first game scheduled for 2:05 ET and second game scheduled for 4:05 ET. Detroit has #1 starter scheduled and rested while #2 starter is fatigued, but #3 starter is rested. St. Louis (A) has #2 starter scheduled and rested while #3 starter is fatigued, but #4 starter is rested.

Prediction: Detroit #1 starter and St. Louis (A) #2 starter will pitch both games.
Result: Detroit #1 starter and St. Louis (A) #2 starter pitched both games.

I added predictions for the second set of scenarios because it became clear in my testing that the main problem appears to be in the starter selection algorithm. All teams have their rotation mode set to "Start highest rested starter!" This is a problem with doubleheaders since fatigue is calculated/updated at the end of the day rather than at the end of the game. Therefore, the following sequence of events appear to produce the observed results:

1. Scheduled starter is rested and starts game 1 of doubleheader.
2. After the game, the next starter is incremented and a new scheduled starter is calculated.
3. If the new scheduled starter is fatigued, the game looks for the highest rested starter. In most cases, this is the starter that just pitched game 1 since fatigue has not been calculated/updated for the previous game yet.

This is exacerbated by what I consider to be incorrect or haphazard use of spot starters. What I have observed is that spot starters are used randomly (based on the assigned percentage from the pitching staff). I would prefer that spot starters be used a little more intelligently. When I'm managing, I will use spot starters and other marginal starters in situations where scheduled starters are tired or slumping. This does make rotation management a little more complex, but it is also more realistic in that it is consistent with historical major league patterns.

On a philosophical note, pitching rotations are an idealized abstraction. The key objective in most cases is for a team's best pitchers to get the most starts possible while also getting the rest they need. Usually the top two or three starters will take almost every pitching opportunity (barring injury) while the rest of the starts will be clustered among the remaining starters.

The single most frustrating thing for me is that OOTP remains ignorant of doubleheaders. I find this frustrating since doubleheader support is an issue that has been discussed consistently in the forums as long as I've known about OOTP.

I see two potential fixes for this issue, the first probably easier than the second:

1. Change the pitcher selection algorithm to make better use of spot starters as well as other potential starters. Major league history is scattered with cases where back-bench starters have been called on because of fatigue, injuries, slumps, or capriciousness. In OOTP, however, I've really only seen back-bench starters get called on by the computer manager in cases of injuries.

2. Calculate or update fatigue at the end of a game rather than at the end of the day. This does not appear to be entirely inconsistent with the game model since it does appear that next starter is incremented once the starter is selected (either when the game starts or after the game).

If something like this was done, I see the potential for moving toward full support of doubleheaders. Full support would include combining attendance for both games and perhaps allowing a slight upward adjustment for fan interest to increase attendance.

Finally, a note about what appears to be folklore that has grown around the relationship between game time and reasonable behavior for doubleheaders. When simming an entire day, it appears that OOTP handles each of the games in a serial manner, so the game time probably has no impact. When a human plays out a game with the other games playing in the background, OOTP takes the game time into account as it interleaves the games. In this case, however, I have seen that OOTP loses the statistics from one of the doubleheader games that it plays in the background. I think full support for doubleheaders would include a fix for this issue as well.

My research on this issue continues as I will try some more adjustments to game starting to see if my final conjecture holds.

I hope this helps.

[fearofmimes]

Okay...I tested the remaining scenarios and came up with results similar to what I observed in my previous post.

First, when simming an entire day, the starting game times for the first and second games of the doubleheader have no impact on the selection of pitchers. I tried two scheduling scenarios:

1. Setting an identical time for game 1 and game 2 of the doubleheader produces the same results (as predicted in the previous test).

2. Setting the widest gap possible between start times for game 1 and game 2 in the doubleheader produces the same results (as predicted in the previous test).

I also tried simming each of the games individually, but I observed that fatigue is not saved after simming an individual game and the results turned out the same.

[gmo]

Originally posted by Tresclub
How did you do this?

My conversion technique is probably different from the others here. In my former job I did quite a bit of work converting data files from one format to another format I was using. However, I don't have that software I formerly used at work on my home machine, so to convert from Retrosheet to OOTP-ready, I have been basically using a spreadsheet (the Works version, not even Excel).

I assumed someone more experienced in Windows programming would do something more sophisticated, and it seems one or two others have at least done something different. But it appears no one has yet done what I thought would be optimal in this regard - make a little GUI program similar in appearance to Stickware that nearly fully automates the process.

In the absence of that, if there are a handful of people who have worked some on Retrosheet-to-OOTP conversion, perhaps there can be coordination (or pushing it all onto one person) to produce one set of results, presumably that can come as close as OOTP can to the exacting standards of LGO. Dates and teams cannot really be argued, so game times are the key thing to make uniform, and LGO has now posted above what could probably be general guidelines. Also, there are a few issues I have so far run into with the Retrosheet schedules, notably a handful of apparently incorrect dates in the 1957 file (an "n" at the end of the yyyymmdd, when the dd part is missing a zero?) and how do handle postponed games.

[Eugene Church]

fearofmimes:

Thanks for the great research you are doing concerning doubleheaders. I use them and they have worked out well. I sim each game. I made the times for the games 1 and 5. I check pitchers for fatigue prior to each game. I use relievers often in second games or the day following a doubleheaders. This has made the game more realistic as far as using the whole staff, something OOTPB doesn't do.

Great Work. It is much appreciated.

I hope Markus and OOTPB developers will take a close look at your work and Le Grande Orange schedule work and make schedules, doubleheaders and realistic use of starters and relievers possible in the game.

[Le Grande Orange]

Fearofmimes, I want to echo what Eugene said. Excellent work sir! Maybe, just maybe, it may be possible to have fatigue updated after each game rather than at the end of the day. If so, it would go a long way into resolving the main remaining doubleheader issues.

In any case, I'm just glad there are some other like-minded folks on this issue around here. It's reassuring to know I'm not just a lone voice in the wilderness...

Originally posted by gmo
Also, there are a few issues I have so far run into with the Retrosheet schedules, notably a handful of apparently incorrect dates in the 1957 file (an "n" at the end of the yyyymmdd, when the dd part is missing a zero?) and how do handle postponed games.

If you see any such instances, please let me know the specifics and I'll check into them, and if there are any problems I'll let Dave Smith know so that he can get them corrected.

Could you clarify what you mean about handling postponed games?